# Would you have a dental done on a 17 year old cat? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771 "2020-03-02T05:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771/21 "2020-03-02T22:46:17Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Just a side question but what area of the world are you from? > I’ve never heard of dental work referred to as having “a dental”. Just what my vet calls it, “your cat needs a dental, let’s talk” I scheduled a consult with her, I trust her 100% not to sell me any B.S., and the man of the house says leave the poor guy alone, but as was said a couple of times, upthread,cats are pros at hiding shit. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771/22 "2020-03-03T00:14:33Z")
That’s a tough one. It sounds like kitty doesn’t have much time left, and at some point you have to say enough is enough. But I do think tooth extraction might not be such a terrible ordeal that you have to draw the line here. My old roommate adopted a young cat with bad teeth and had to have most of them pulled. It seemed like a pretty quick procedure, and the cat was right back to her happy self after. Have you asked the vet what s/he’d do if it was his/her own cat? ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771/23 "2020-03-03T01:21:21Z")
Is that 119 in human years? In any event if kitty isn’t in pain I’d leave it alone if he is maybe he needs to be put down. My sister had a cat born in 1968 & had to be put down in 1990. A terrific run. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771/24 "2020-03-03T02:13:53Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > Just what my vet calls it, “your cat needs a dental, let’s talk” > > I scheduled a consult with her, I trust her 100% . Oh, good. You’ve got a vet. you can trust. I’ve also got vets. I can trust; and, while there are things they can’t or won’t say, they manage to get across quite readily the difference between ‘I have to tell you that this procedure is available, but I’m not actually recommending it’ and ‘Let me make that appointment for you right now.’ Talk with the vet. Ask her, as has been suggested, what she would do if it were her cat. Infected teeth are very likely to be painful; if the vet. thinks he’s in pain, doing nothing is IMO probably not a good choice. Anaesthesia is always some risk – but aside from that, I don’t think tooth extraction is particularly risky, and the recovery period is short. But again, talk to the vet. She knows the particular cat, and the particular case. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771/25 "2020-03-03T02:41:30Z")
> [@aktep](#): > > My previous vet was reluctant to do dental work on cats that old, as there was a high chance of complications. They wouldn’t do routine work - only emergency work on an otherwise healthy cat, and only after a battery of other tests to ensure there were no underlying issues. Ever since we adopted our previous two dogs we had a dental procedure done every year. However, our vet said that as they aged he would recommend that we only have the work done if there was an obvious issue. As animals age, he said the anesthesia itself can be dangerous. Both passed away a year apart, before they got to that point (15 or 16 yrs old…we never knew their exact ages). We adopted Max last October at age 10, and he had 7 extractions. Yikes! But his breath could knock out a moose, so we weren’t _too_ surprised. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771/26 "2020-03-03T07:24:48Z")
> [@aktep](#): > > My previous vet was reluctant to do dental work on cats that old, as there was a high chance of complications. They wouldn’t do routine work - only emergency work on an otherwise healthy cat, and only after a battery of other tests to ensure there were no underlying issues. I would hope that the dental surgeon in question knows WTF they are doing. Example: a _young_ cat, unfortunately with chronic hyperthermia, brought in for a dental procedure. Cat experiences respiratory depression as a reaction to anaesthesia and is revived, the procedure aborted. The point is, they should know how to anaesthize a cat and how to deal with possible complications, and also if the procedure might be dangerous for some reason they will let you know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-dental-done-on-a-17-year-old-cat/848771.md?page=1)